


Kill This Love

by BinaryAngel



Series: Angel Virus [3]
Category: Mystic Messenger (Video Game)
Genre: Enemies to Lovers, F/M, Secret Identity, Spies & Secret Agents, Vanderwood Route because he deserves one
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-15
Updated: 2019-08-16
Packaged: 2020-06-28 12:38:28
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 14,700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19812475
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BinaryAngel/pseuds/BinaryAngel
Summary: The assignment was simple. Locate and collect information on the targets; two twin males. Report all findings to the client through encrypted email. Terminate targets if necessary.Agent Piri was not supposed to hesitate, empathise with her targets, or see them as people. Mission protocols were absolute and she should not question them. She certainly was not supposed to feel anything for the enemy agent allied to her targets.





	1. Prologue: Assignment

“You’ve got a job.” Piri’s handler did not bother with pleasantries, not that he ever did. He made a beeline to her desk and dropped the manilla envelope onto the young woman’s desk. “They want your full focus on this one, starting immediately. Your in-progress assignments have already been reassigned to another agent.”

“Joy, I was nearly done with them.” And whatever agent picked them up would likely take full credit for all of the work she had put into her cases. She picked up the envelope and the bright red of the classified stamp helped ease her anger some. Flipping it over she saw the strips of coloured tape that had sealed it shut, untampered with and fully intact. All hints towards a high priority client which would look good on her work history. Better than a handful of low priority contacts. “So what’s the deal with this one?”

“Read it and find out.” That brought her attention to her handler and a frown to her lips. The tall, greying male stared down at her with his hands clasped behind his back. The small tilt of his head was almost apologetic. “This is a solo mission. I’m not involved beyond handing it off to you.”

“So you’re not even briefed on this?” That was unusual. He was her handler, after all, and her mentor. While she had solo missions before, he had always been briefed on them to offer her backup and advice if she ever needed it. It was standard operating procedure for the organisation to assure the success of all missions. Only the highest ranking agents were ever truly solo and as good as Piri was, she had not been part of the organsation long enough to have the track record necessary to be assigned a true solo mission.

Yet here she was.

“This job was assigned to you by the council.” The highest ranking members of the organisation. The small group who ran the entire show that she had never met. There were rumours abound about the council, but no one she knew had ever met with them. “You have an hour to go over the material they provided, dispose of it, and meet with deployment to collect your identity and supplies.”

“Right.” Piri dragged her finger along the edge of the seal, but did not break it yet. The case would definitely look good under her belt with all the secrecy involved. If, no when, she completed it successfully she was sure to receive the promotion she was vying for. Higher pay and higher difficultly missions. The prestige and respect of her peers. The ability to pick and choose what missions she went on along with access to all the best equipment usually reserved for their more experienced agents.  
It would be a lie to say that Piri was not excited even if she was not sure why the case had been handed to her and not a more experienced agent. She could only assume that the envelope carried hints towards why she was chosen for the mission.

“Remember your training.” Her handler offered, the only advice he could give her without breaking protocols. “You’re one of our best, Piri, one of our most promising agents. Do not let anything stand in your way of completing this mission.”

“Yes sir.” Despite herself she could not stop the smile that spread across her face or the way she sat up a little straighter in her chair under the warmth of his praise. “I won’t let the organisation down.”  
“See that you don’t.” He gave her one last nod before turning and leaving the way he came. Once she saw the red light above the door that alerted her to the hour long seal-in, she turned back to the envelope and broke the seal.

#

The first packet within the envelope was fairly standard. It provided a summary of the protocol for the mission, repeating several times that she was not to contact or speak with anyone about the details. She would entirely be on her own once she left the headquarters. She was expected to make regular reports to an encrypted email she would find on the laptop provided to her. The timeline for the case was open ended, but recommended that she complete it within two months. 

The second packet detailed her new identity. Ji-ae Bak, twenty-three years old, and born in raised in a rural town. Orphaned at the age of two, she was raised by an uncle until the age of ten when an illness claimed her guardian’s life. With no surviving relatives she was taken in by a local orphanage where she remained until aged out. She rented a room there, working odd jobs for the orphanage and farmers, before she could save up enough to move to the city with a modest nest egg of won.  
Her parents and uncle’s profiles were also attached to the documentation with the information necessary for her to step into the role of surviving daughter and niece. Information that would rarely be used given the only resident of the city who would know of her and her family was an old man, an estranged friend of her uncle, whose profile was also attached to the packet.  
  
A note at the end of the identify packet reminded her that equipment would supply her with documentation and proper identification to start her temporary life as Ji-ae along with a reminder that if she were to need anything else or happened to lose provided materials they would not be able to offer replacements. 

The rest of the packet was the case itself. Her job was to locate and tail two targets, but never directly interact with them. She was required to create a profile for the targets detailing all the information she collected on the job. Along with the profiles she was required to mark all pertinent locations and draft a schedule of the targets movement. Once she had all the data the job would be completed, all finalised documents sent to the email, and she would return to headquarters.

Her targets had a low flight risk but the assignment was clear. If the flight risk ever reached a thirty percent chance, her assignment would change from collecting information to taking out the targets. Not the kind of work she preferred, but nothing beyond her capabilities.

The greatest headache of the assignment would be starting out. There were two pictures provided. An old, damaged picture of the targets from when they were very young. Twin amber-eyed redheads standing in front of a woman whose fingers dug into their shoulders to keep them still. The second picture was labelled a possible match for one of the twins, taken a month prior to her receiving the case, and was taken in front of a cafe. It was grainy, snipped from nearby surveillance, and gave no clear shot of the male’s face, but had been deemed close enough to give her a starting point.

She now knew why she had been handed the case. They needed someone close to the target’s age that could blend in with the university crowd. As the most experienced agent the organisation had to offer in that age range, the mission had been handed onto her to complete. 

The second headache would be the acquaintances of her targets. There was no information on who they may be allied with, or if they were even still together, but it was suspected that at least one of the targets could be working with or for hackers. An unfortunate part of the mission since Piri’s hacking skills were on the fundamental side and could not be able to counter any attacks she may receive if they were to catch wind of her and target her equipment. Thankfully she would not have to rely on her own skills as the equipment she would be provided with were locked down by the best their organisation had to offer and were assured to be hackproof from remote locations. As long as she kept the laptop specifically out of the hands of any possible hackers, her mission would remain secret even if her cover were blown.

Piri fed the contents of the envelope into the shredder, one by one, and then fed the ribbons of paper to a paper-making machine that mashed it into pulp. Once all evidence was cleared she bid farewell to her office and left it behind. She had equipment to collect and a new life to step into.


	2. Day 1: A Lead

Black wig, cut to fall to the middle of her back and simply styled with a flower clip to pin long bangs off to one side, leaving a swoop of hair to partially obscure one eye. A typical enough hair colour and style that it would not catch more than a passing glance in the streets. Check.

Blue ombre skirt, starting at a dark blue at her hips and flaring out to a light blue at her knees. White blouse, with the last two buttons left undone paired with a dark blue cardigan. White thigh high socks paired with strappy light blue wedges. A fashionable outfit without quite meeting the latest fashion trends. Something that a rural girl would be able to reasonably afford and would wear out shopping. Check.

Black and blue purse that hung from her shoulder. Inside the simple purse was a red tinted lipgloss, a hand mirror, a smartphone with a sparkly purple case, and a wallet that matched the phonecase. Inside the wallet she had all her essentials - identification, metrocard, credit card, and some spending cash for spontaneous purchases. Check.

Piri, now Ji-ae Bak according to her identification, sucked in a deep breath of air before stepping out of the shadows and slipping into the crowd leaving the metro. The first few steps as a temporary identity was always a rush. Her heart thumped a little bit harder, a little bit faster in her chest as she left herself behind. She blended seamlessly in with the crowd. Just another twenty-something year old girl on her way to the mall or the movies or the university. Just a normal girl, another face in the crowd.  
Something she never was and never would be.

Just as well. She could not miss what she never had.

Keeping in mind that she had no reason to be familiar with the city, she lingered at the map before leaving the metro station. There were plenty of signs to keep her on the right path, a testament to how traveller friendly the university city was. Finding her way to the shopping centre close to SKY University was certainly easy and, with further labelled maps, she managed to find her way to the cafe the possible match of her target had been spotted entering.

The cafe was an innocuous enough place. Trendy with a touch of elegance, it fit in quite well in the shopping district. The inside was quiet nice, but Ji-ae was definitely surprised to see the waitstaff dressed in uniforms clearly inspired by Alice in Wonderland. A flier on the table explained that the event would last a few more days before they would bring back the cat-made due to popular demand. Definitely not something she expected from such a quaint looking location, but she had certainly heard of stranger cafes.

  
“Hello!” A dark-skinned waitress dressed as Alice bounced up to Ji-ae’s table not long after she had picked up her menu. The badge on her shirt proclaimed that her name was Maria. “Are you ready to order?”

“Milk tea,” Her eyes slid towards the menu and landed on the scones. “And a cranberry orange scone, please.”

“Is that all?” Once she received a nod Maria offered her a bright smile. “I’ll have that out for you soon.”

Left on her own, Ji-ae fished her phone out of her purse and turned it on. She navigated to the menu and security settings to set a new password for the phone. As soon as that was done she moved over to her app and opened one to give her something to do while she waited for her order.

The organisation’s equipment agents had some sense of humour. The app, along with several others, was one of those romance games decently popular with women her age. The kind of game where the player took the role of the main character and, depending on their choices, ended up in a happy romance with one of the attractive love interests.  
The one she opened told the story of some woman who had stupidly stumbled into an open investigation. As a witness that had blown their cover, she ended up having to choose one of the agents to be taken in by until the case was settled which was expected to be about two weeks. Ji-ae rolled her eyes as she chose one of the agents while wondering if the game was an accurate depiction of what the developers thought an agent’s life was really like.

They did not cozy up to someone who had blown their cover or complicated their work. They certainly did not take that person to their active safehouse to live with them. And the whole romance aspect? Well, she wanted to laugh. Romance was not a thing any good agent ever allowed to fester. It was a weakness that had to be nipped in the bud before it could take root. And love in two weeks was just not a thing that happened in real life.

The game was at least an amusing diversion and even gave her a decent excuse to glance around the room every now and then, giving her a chance to people watch.

There were only a few other customers, none of them matching her target. A pair of young women who giggled as a male waiter dressed as the Mad Hatter served them their drinks. At another table covered in papers sat an older gentleman who appeared to be busy writing. No one struck her as suspicious and while she trusted her instincts, she also knew better than to complete eradicate them as having some form of connection to her target so she made a mental note of their faces.

“Pregnant lady coming through!” Fairly heavy with child, the woman burst through the door and plopped down into a chair not far from Ji-ae. She planted her feet on the chair opposite her before hollering again. “I demand a sandwich, some juice, and my sister!”

The Mad Hatter glanced over at the woman, rolled his eyes, and disappeared into the back making Ji-ae figure that the woman was a regular and that her behaviour was nothing out of the ordinary. A moment later Maria exited the back and stopped by Ji-ae’s table to deliver her order with an apologetic smile before making a bee-line to the loud woman’s table.

“Okay, loudmouth, I’m here. What do you want?” Maria planted her hands on her hips and glared down at her. “And aren’t you supposed to be on bedrest? Does Seven know you’re here?”

“Is it a crime to want to see my sister?” That surprised Ji-ae more than a little bit. The two women, while close in age, hardly looked like sister. Maria was darker skinned while the other was paler with strange, mint coloured eyes. They must be half sister’s or adopted sisters, she decided as she reached for her tea to take a sip. “And yeah, yeah. He knows I’m here. Would’ve tagged along but he’s tied to his work right now.”

“Maid’s got the taser again?” Maria spared a glance towards the back before grabbing a chair from a nearby table and sinking down into it. “I’m surprised he’s not here to help keep an eye on your trouble-making self.”

“Me? A trouble maker? I have no idea what you’re talking about.” She fluttered her eyelashes and put on an innocent expression that could not fool anyone. “And, well, Vanderwood was supposed to come along but I lost track at him at the metro.”

“Morri! You didn’t ditch the poor guy, did you?” At Morri’s not at all sheepish grin Maria groaned. “You’re such a headache.”

“Yup, but everyone loves me anyways.” She waved that off with a small laugh. “Speaking of love, please tell me you love me and have tonight free. I’m in dire need of a girl’s night.”

While the vast majority of the conversation was irrelevant, it did give her some more names to look into. With Maria working here and Morri being a regular, it was not a stretch to believe that Seven and Vanderwood might be regulars as well. They were strange names, with Seven likely being a nickname, but she might be able to find something on them if she could find Maria’s social media accounts.

A vibration alerted her to a text message and she closed out her app to check. The message was from a number labelled as Minnie, supposedly one of Ji-ae’s friends back at the orphanage, but in actually a bot attached to her laptop.

 **Minnie:** Double hottie alert. Should I try to get their numbers?

The laptop, which was linked to her phone, had picked up on something odd in the vicinity. Two instances of an unusual string of code or signal of some sort. She would not know until she returned to her rented flat to check the readout. Ji-ae’s eyes lifted from the phone to drift over the occupants of the cafe before dropping back down to type in her response and give the program the go ahead to collect what it could.

 **Ji-ae:** Yes. If you don’t, I’ll never let you live it down.

 **Ji-ae:** Oh, can you check the place for my doll? >_> .dypd

 **Minnie:** .dypd? Dork. Yeah, I’ll check and let you know if I find it.

With the system now knowing to run a search for Maria, she closed out the text messages and set her phone aside in favour of her scone. She highly doubted another lead would drop into her lap. It was astounding that she even stumbled across anything today, let alone some names to look into. She had expected to have to make multiple repeat appearances before she made any edge way towards finding her target.

Content with the progress she had made and with several things to look into, Ji-ae dropped her payment and a decent tip on the table and gave Maria and Morri a wave on her way out the door. She had a flat to settle into and some data to look through.

#

The alert she had received from ‘Minnie’ turned out to be an app that had been on at least two of the phones in or near the cafe. The program had cloned as much of it as it could and warned her there may be errors if she she were to use it. She directed the program to scan the app markets for a possible match before clicking and opening the app.

Immediately she noticed square images, all placeholder images inputted by Minnie, stretched across the top. Eight in total that, when she clicked one, opened up to show a larger view of the placeholder along with a banner and some text. Something like a simplistic profile was her best guess. Backing out of that she eyeballed the main screen of the app. Round buttons proclaimed email, message, call, and chatroom. There was nothing in the email or messages, but the call brought up the same placeholder images she suspected to be profile pictures and a call button.

  
“Only eight?” She eyed them thoughtfully for a moment before pulling up Minnie and instructing it to try to retrieve the numbers. Returning to the main screen she tapped the chatroom button and was surprised to see them archived by day. Choosing the current day she scrolled through the list to see several chats had already happened, inaccessible when she clicked on them, with profile images showing who had participated, and one active one that did not appear to be locked.

Rather than risk the active users noticing her poking around, she backed out of the app and set Minnie to alert her when any chats were started, especially if the ID matched whomever the code had been cloned from.

“What do you have for me, you quirky app you?” Moving back through it she found what appeared to be a gallery and poked through to see mostly placeholder images. There were a few casual pictures of food, a cat, some cars, and a photo of Morri with her arm draped over a male who had the same mint-green eyes that she did. A brother perhaps. All in all, it pointed towards the app being a fairly personal one shared between friends.

So Morri, and possibly Marie as well, were two of the eight users of this app. It made sense that the sisters would both use the same app, but what struck Ji-ae as odd was that a group of friends would have a special app rather than taking advantage of one of the more popular and readily available apps on the market. If the pictures were not so random she would have suspected it was some workplace app, but the pictures clearly indicated the atmosphere was less professional and more personal.

A hive of hackers, perhaps? She filed that thought away for later as she closed out the emulation and checked through Minnie’s findings. The search for a match was ongoing, but nothing had yet to pop up as close. The search for Maria, however, popped up a few profiles. She dismissed the ones belonging to Lady Maria fan accounts or those clearly ran by Korean women. That left three accounts, for different social media sites, that could belong to the Maria she had met.

So Ji-ae did what she did best. She snooped. She scrolled through the posts and through the uploaded pictures. She eyeballed the friends list until she stumbled across evidence that one of the accounts did belong to Maria.

There was a picture. A selfie judging by the angle of Marie’s arm and the picture, of Maria and Morri. The picture was old since it was clearly taken before Morri’s pregnancy showed. A tag on the photo brought her to Morri’s profile. Turns out the woman’s name was Morrigan and she was engaged to the a ‘God Seven-Zero-Seven’ whose profile was completely private. Neither sister had a public friends list or any other public pictures of them with someone that she might have used to build their acquaintance list.

  
Oh well, she thought with a grin. If she were patient and kept an eye on things more information would be revealed.


	3. Day 2: Narrow Them Down

Ji-ae picked at the sleeve of her cardigan, a purple so deep it was nearly black this time, as she peered up at Mr Park from beneath lowered lashes. The grizzled male had an impressive poker face, one that she found herself envying. Not once since she stepped foot in his homecrafted goods shop did his expression deviate. Not when she introduced herself as the niece of an old friend of his. Not when she asked for a part time job in the store, claiming a need to have some sort of income while she settled into the city and citing a desire to get to know someone her uncle had talked to her about.

Not that income really mattered to her. The credit card supplied to her by the organisation had enough to keep her afloat for however long she had to stay. There was also a modest stash of spending cash within her flat. If she really, really needed it and she ran out of the organisation’s offering then she could always dip into her personal savings to fund her mission.

What having a job did do was give her some measure of credibility. It gave her a reason to have money as well as a reason to be returning to the shopping district of that strange cafe. The strange cafe that was ever so coincidentally within view of the windows of Mr Park’s shop.

It would give her a way to surveillance the cafe to keep an eye on the members of those app that showed up there as well as possibly catch one of her targets in the area. All without having her dip inside everyday day for tea and snacks while loitering over some otome game.

“If I didn’t owe your uncle, Miss Bak…” Mr Park ran his fingers through his short copped greying hair with a sigh. He turned away from her and pulled an apron out from beneath the counter and offered it to her. “May the old fool rest in peace.”

“I can’t thank you enough.” Ji-ae shrugged out of her cardigan and exchanged it for the apron. As she tied it on she sent the older male a thoughtful look. “One of these days I’d love to hear some stories about my uncle.”

“We’ll see.” Mr Park moved away from her to hang her cardigan behind the counter. “You’ll be charge of dusting the front, greeting any customers that come in, and helping me bag up orders. If you need anything, just holler.”

With that he left Ji-ae to man the front. She was not sure if it was a testament to his trusting nature or a testament to how little he wanted to deal with her. She stared after him for a moment before moving around to the back of the counter and finding the duster beneath the counter. With that in hand she made her way through the shelves and aisles, familiarising herself with the products as she dusted. The shop sold soaps of all kinds. Shampoo bars, jelly soaps, fizzy soaps, lotions, and some neat looking bars.

It was hard to imagine such such a unfriendly looking elder making such colourful bars. There was a translucent blue one with a goldfish inside and a sandy base that looked similar enough to sand that Ji-ae had to wonder how he had managed that. Another that caught her eye, if only for the amount of glitter on it, had a psychadelic swirl of black, purple, and silver. That soap had a dessert like top and a golden ball nestled at the peak and dusted with glitter. Another that caught her eye had yellow and black stripes and what looked like honey glazed butter on top, complete with a little bee sitting on the side.

Mr Park clearly had some talent and Ji-ae made a mental note to buy some of his craft soaps to take back to the flat. Maybe even a few extra to take back with her once the mission was over.

Eventually her work turned idle, dusting and redusting the same shelves. As nice as the soap crafts were, the shop did not seem to be the busy type which gave her plenty of time to keep an eye on the cafe. It should not be hard to spot a redhead or two even in the busier hours from this spot.

Honestly, the gig at Mr Park’s shop really put into perspective how much effort the organisation had put into her cover story. They had dotted every I and crossed very tea to make her appear as legitimate as possible in case anyone poked their noses into it. Of course, it would be nice not to have to wear a wig but her lavender and indigo ombre pixie cut would draw more eyes than she wanted.

She wondered if Ji-ae Bak had been a real person, considering Mr Park’s ready acceptance of her as his old friend’s niece. If that were the case, she had to wonder what happened to the poor girl. Either Ji-ae was real or the old man had been pre-warned by the organisation to accept her story and not question it.

“Miss?” A young man’s voice drew her thoughts from Ji-ae to the present.

“Hello! Welcome to Mr Park’s Soaps!” She abandoned her duster at the counter and hurried over to greet the young man. Appearing close to her age, perhaps younger, she figured he was probably a college student. Especially with the visible bags under his purple eyes. The blond did have a bright, friendly smile which she returned. “How can I help you?”

“Um, well, I’m looking for a gift for someone.” Sweet. He even looked a bit bashful, reminding her a little of a golden retriever puppy.

“We’ve definitely got some nice gift options here.” She tucked a stray bang behind her ear before motioning to the shelves. “So what do you have in mind? Soap, shampoo, lotion?”

“Soap, I think. And a fizzy one?” He glanced at the shelves and back, looking just a little overwhelmed.

“Nice, nice. Can’t go wrong there.” That helped ease some of his clear anxiety. Taking the reigns she planted a hand on her hip and kept the friendly smile on her face. “Who are we shopping for today? A girlfriend, perhaps?”

Oh, his cheeks went adorably red at her question and he suddenly could not meet her gaze.

“It’s for my mom.” His answer was quiet but she heard him clearly enough. “Her birthday is coming up and I wanted to get her something nice.”

“Love it!” She drummed her fingers against her hips as she thought for a second how to progress. No part of her wanted to toss the young man out without securing a purchase. It was her first day of work and it would give Mr Park a decent impression if she could get a sale. That and the poor puppy really seemed clueless. “Does she have a favourite scent? Dessert? Season? Colour?”

“Oh, um. Summer.” His answer came after only a second, her questions bringing him out of his embarrassment. “She likes the colour blue. And blueberries. Blueberry everything.”

“Oh fantastic.” She hurried over to a shelf, eyes scanning rapidly until she spotted the blueberry slushie soap. Made of many different swirls of blue, scented with blueberry, and topped with a straw made out of soap, she could see his mother liking it. After giving it another glance she turned and offered it to the male. “What do you think?”

“That’s perfect!” His eyes lit up as he took the soap from her, turning it over to examining it and bringing it close to his nose to sniff at it through its bag.”Do you think you’ve got any fizzy soaps like this too?”

Turns out they did have some fizzy soaps with the same colour scheme and scent along with lotion, and a shampoo bar. They carried them all to the register and Ji-ae asked for his patience as she navigated her way through ringing him up and tallying up his total. She pulled out her phone to double check her math before giving him the total.

“That’ll be 26350 won.” She could see his smile fall at the price.

“Oh, I’ve only got 20000.” His gaze dropped to the objects and she knew he was figuring out what he could return to be able to afford the rest.

“No worries, I’ll spot you the rest.” She bagged his items and pushed it towards him. “Just be sure to come by when you have another gift to buy.”

“Really?” The surprise made his already large eyes widen further and after a moment, when she did not shout prank or pull the bag back, he fished out the 20000 won and handed it over. “Thank you so much! Really, this is too kind!”

“Ahh, it’s nothing.” Ji-ae pulled the remaining won out of the wallet she had tucked in her shorts pocket, shoved it into the proper slots before counting out her change. “Really, it’s nothing. Just make sure your mom has a great birthday.”

“I’ll do my best.” She heard the crinkle of his bag and glanced up to receive another bright smile. “I’m Yoosung, by the way.”

“Ji-ae. Nice to meet you.” She dumped her change into her wallet, zipped it back up, and tucked it onto her pocket before giving Yoosung a wave on his way out the door. “Have a nice day!”

Ji-ae waited until he was out of sight to prop an elbow against the counter and pull her cellphone out of her back pocket. Silenced as it was, she had felt it vibrate during Yoosung’s visit.

 **Minnie:** Hottie alert! Brother to the last two, believe it or not. Lucky me that I snagged his digits. Gonna collect the whole set at this rate.

Her eyes snapped up from the phone to the shop’s door where Yoosung had disappeared through. Yoosung, much like the sister’s at the cafe the day before, had an app matching the code her program had cloned. The pieces were just falling into her lap, almost too easily.

Still, she would be a fool not to follow up.

 **Ji-ae:** Shock. How many brothers could really be that hot?

A nonsense answer that the bot would ignore.

 **Ji-ae:** Met a cutie named Yoosung. Sold him soap.

 **Minnie:** Right on!

Now that the program knew the name Yoosung as a person of interest, it should check with the sister’s profiles to see if he came up at any point. Ji-ae closed out the texts messages to scroll through her apps and open an otome game at random. With the store dusted, she had little more to do but watch the cafe and see just how well her luck held up. 

#

By the time traded her wig for a shower and pyjamas the app was more complete than it was the night before. She settled into her computer chair with a bottle of water and clicked through the pictures that had replaced the placeholder images. Of the profiles, two were now clear - Maria and Yoosung’s. Within the gallery were a dozen photos. Video game characters, several of Maria, one of Yoosung and Maria, and a few of breakfast foods. No sight of her red-haired targets yet.

On top of that, Minnie had connected the dots and found Yoosung’s profiles on the internet, most of which was left open to the public to scroll through. He posted more pictures of game characters, likely from LOLOL, and seemed to tag Maria in a lot of posts. If it were not for the ‘single’ clearly labelled on his profile Ji-ae would have assumed the pair were dating.

With three people of interest, Ji-ae fumbled through the protocols to trigger Minnie to search for mutuals between Morrigan, Maria, and Yoosung’s profiles. All the while she wondered how well the program could poke through the privacy settings of the social media sites, but figured it was worth a shot. Minnie was a rather advanced program, after all. The best the organisation had to offer. If anything could get through a social media’s privacy walls then it should be Minnie.

With that done and still a few hours left in the day, she had little else to do but continue exploring the app. After checking through all the pictures she found nothing immediately useful. Moving onto the profiles she saw that one of the usernames started with a J, but the rest of the name remained an incomplete mess. Moving on she confirmed that old chats were still sealed off.

As she scrolled through the chats she got an alert through the app informing her that a new chat had begun. When she scrolled over to look at it she saw no immediate hint that she was barred from it.

She could ignore it. She could close out the app and follow some other thread. She could manually go through Yoosung’s profile and uploaded pictures for hints of her targets but she dismissed that idea for the time being. The chances of her finding much on Yoosung’s profile was fairly low. As public as his posts were, she doubted a client as particular as hers would have bothered involving the organisation. She knew very little about the client, but got the feeling that whoever it was preferred as little people involved as possible.

There was also the option of hitting the town itself. The shopping district was littered with security cameras and any of them might have caught sight of her target. If Ji-ae could find the right wire she could splice a remote device to allow Minnie access to the feeds. Just one decent photograph would take away her need to manually sift through photographs or sit through hours of surveillance.

That was something else she could do another day, when she had not already showered and prepared for bed. A highly trained secret agent she may be, but she happened to be quite comfy at the moment and was not about to change that.

So Ji-ae sipped her water as she pulled the app back up and eyed the active chat. There was definitely a risk in joining the chat. The chances of completely cloning the app was both inevitable and impossible. There was the possibility that Minnie could not take any more coding from the apps she had already cloned, which would make gaining the rest of the app impossible unless she happened to cross paths with enough of the remaining members to clone the last of what she needed. On the other hand, with her proximity to the cafe and planned visits there for milk tea, if Minnie could just keep tapping Maria’s app for the code then she would get the full thing eventually.

If she had the full app then it would be a lot easier for Minnie to reverse engineer it and take it apart to access what was classified. That would be a long con and preferable if the app was her target, rather than an individual who may have access to it. There was also the fact that the more Minnie tapped the phone of any member to clone it, the more likely someone may notice if they know what to look for.

As good as Minnie was, it was not impossible for a determined coder to block the program. There was a reason why programs had yet to take every job a human could, because computerised intellect could not replicate the creativity of a human mind.

Accessing the chat now would pretty much assure that her presence would be noticed and she might not gain anything valuable from the chat.

Quite frankly protocol pointed her towards biding her time and not risking being blocked from the app just yet. Not while there was still information that it could unveil for her. At the same time she had an itch, a driving urge to click the chat. Her instincts were telling her to go against the protocol, to ignore the risks, and just see what the chat had for her.

“Talking to my handler right now would be fan-freaking-tastic.” She spoke to the app since there was no one else there to listen to her. “If only to have an ear to bounce my thoughts against.”

She set her water aside on the table and pushed against the desk, sending her chair rolling away and into a spin. She could practically hear his voice now.

“’Weigh the pros and cons, Piri. Calculate the risk against the gain.’” She did her best imitation of her handler’s deeper voice, down to the slightly disappointed tone. “’Following protocol is your top priority as an agent of the organistion, but do not ignore what your instincts tell you.’”

The mimickry of his voice almost made her feel nostalgic for his hovering. It was an itch that she ripped apart with self-depreciating irritation. The organisation had trained all of their agents to be independent and depend on no one to help them complete a mission. The mission above life, above love, and above family.

Her wish, however quiet, to talk to her mentor was a sure sign that it was time to cut those strings and raze it to the ground before an actual attachment formed. As soon as she completed the mission she would have to demand a change in mentor, if the council still felt that she needed one. If she played her cards right and wrapped up this mission before their estimated completion time then she might be promoted straight to a solo agent who had no handler to worry about.

The idea burned away the dying nostalgia and replaced it with a proud excitement. The council had to believe in her and her skills, after all, to task her with a mission of this confidentiality. While she may be the most convenient for the role, if they thought she could not complete it then they would have done everything they could to assign someone they did believe could complete it. This was a test of her skills, of her ability to act on her own without a nanny-goat nudging her in the right direction.

“Right, no risk, no gain.” She stopped her spin with her foot and then used her desk to tug her back in place. She took another sip of her water before clicking the chat and watched it open up before her very eyes.

 **[ERROR]:** Have you been able to reschedule the meeting with Mr Richard?

 **J[ERROR]:** He has been… reluctant to reschedule.

 **J[ERROR]:** If he knew the PM wanted to meet with you, I’m sure he’d be more than happy to accept a different time.

 **[ERROR]:** Then inform him of it.

 **Morrigan:** Nah, nah, naaaaaaah.

 **J[ERROR]:** Understood. I’ll send you your updated schedule first thing in the morning.

 **Morrigan:** Did I mention NAH?

 **J[ERROR]:** ?

 **Morrigan:** Fuuuuuuck the PM. Don’t go. Ditch him.

 **Morrigan:** Ditchy ditch ditch ditch ditch!

 **Morrigan:** Jumin, please. I never ask you for anything.

 **Zen:** Can a person ditch the PM?

 **Morrigan:** Yes they can. By DITCHING him.

 **Morrigan:** Whatever he wants, I can promise you

 **Morrigan:** That it is

 **Morrigan:** Absolutely

 **Morrigan:** Nothing good.

 **[ERROR]:** I will keep your thoughts in mind, but the meeting is already set.

 **Morrigan:** Fuckkkkkk.

 **J[ERROR]:** Aren’t you curious to know what he wants?

 **[ERROR]:** I’ll find out tomorrow.

 **Morrigan:** I’m telling ya. Trust me. This is bad news bears.

“Interesting, very interesting.” Ji-ae drummed her nails against the table as she stared at the chat, watching as the participants slowly trickled out and the conversation turn to more mundane things.

The errored name was one she recognised. Juman Han, the heir and executive director of C&R International. A rather notable figure to be caught hanging around someone as boisterous as Morrigan, but she had seen far stranger things in the private lives of high-profile individuals.

Jumin being a user of the app was not the interesting part. What was interesting was that the PM, identified directly and with much disdain by Morrigan, was the Prime Minister. It did strike Ji-ae as more than a little odd to know the Prime Minister of Korea was meeting with Juman Han rather than meeting with the actual CEO of the company. Chairman Han, however busy he may be, certainly would not turn down a lunch with the prime minister.

Morrigan’s clear hatred for the Prime Minister also struck Ji-ae as odd. Saejoong Choi was well-liked for a politician. Polls were definitely favourable towards him and he was considered at one of the most honest and kind-hearted prime ministers that Korea had ever had. He was practically a shoo-in for the upcoming presidential election. Sure, there were people who did not like some of Mr Choi’s political ideas, but Ji-ae had never seen someone who hated the man like Morrigan did.

“It’s weird.” She acknowledge as she reached for her water. “Very weird, but it’s irrelevant. Get back on track, Piri.”

Water downed and mind clearer she turned her thoughts back to the rest of the information revealed by the chat.

Maria, Morrigan, Jumin Han, his assistant, Yoosung, and Zen.If she recalled correctly from photographs she had seen of the C&R heir, Jumin Han’s assistant was a woman and therefore not one of her targets. That left Zen and the two yet unnamed users. She nudged Minnie towards looking Zen and ran a quick search to find out that Jumin’s assistant was a woman named Jaehee Kang.

Of the two unnamed users, she was fairly certain one was the mysterious Seven engaged to Morrigan. For a moment she had considered the idea that Zen could be the fiance, but after watching the two banter she decided the relationship visible in the chat, while close, was more like siblings than romantic in nature. The last unnamed user could be Vanderwood, if he was part of the small group.

Minnie pinged a result, pulling up a twitter account dedicated to a musical actor named Zen. A strikingly handsome male, but clearly not one of her targets. While a wig or dye could cover the red with silver and contacts could turn gold to red, very little could take one body build and transform it into another. This Zen appeared to bet taller and better built than the images she had seen of her target.

That and the old thought returned. If the target was that obvious then why would the client have bothered contacting the organisation about the assignment?  
A few pictures down the page revealed a bonus bit of information that had her chuckling. There was yet another selfie of Zen, taken in the morning light of a sunrise. The angle was wide and far enough to reveal a young, dark skinned woman tucked against his side, shyly hiding her face behind her bag. No mere fan would hide in such a manner nor would Zen hold a simple friend that closely.

“Well, hello Maria.” She recognised that particular Alice in Wonderland. “You’ve landed yourself a babe. Good job.”

With Zen crossed off the list, Ji-ae wondered about the final two mystery members of the app. One, both, or none of them could be her targets.

Tomorrow had been decided for her. Throughout the day she could find some things to do to bide her time until nightfall. When the moon came out she would ditch Ji-ae for a time and let Piri out on the streets. She needed to plug Minnie into as many security feeds as she could in the shopping district. She needed to catch sight of Vanderwood and Seven to cross them off her list or verify their identities.

It might be a wild goose chase, but every instinct in her was telling her that she was on the right track. This strange group of friends who had a unique, one of a kind app definitely had ties to her targets. She just had to keep pushing, keep digging and would have the mission wrapped up in record time.


	4. Day 3: Suspicious

Having decided to get an early start on the day and pop by the cafe for breakfast, Ji-ae caught the metro early. With the flat completely unpacked and pre-furnished there was little she needed, but she figured she could pick up some better bedding and some food. The bedding set the organisation had supplied the flat with was decent, but she preferred something with a higher thread count. As for food, well, it would be nice to be able to eat something more than instant noodles or delivery.

“Hello again!” Maria must have recognised her because the waitress greeted her with a friendly wave as soon as she stepped foot into the cafe. “Sit anywhere you’d like and I’ll be right with you to take your order.”

The cafe was fairly empty and the table she had used during her first visit was clean and empty. She claimed that spot and set her purse aside in favor of the menu. As much as she had liked the scone, and as tempting as they were, she wanted something with a bit more substance for breakfast. It would be a long day, after all.

“So what’ll it be?” Maria asked when she returned to the dining area.

“The Homely Breakfast.” Ji-ae stated as she stared down at the menu. Deonjang soup, rice, and a fried egg. A simple, but classic breakfast and one she had not had in years. The last time she had deonjang soup was the day she had left the orphanage to enter into the organisations training facility. If she recalled correctly that had been around her tenth birthday.

“And to drink?”

“Milk tea, please.”

“Nice.” Maria repeated the order, just to be sure she had remembered it correctly before glancing at the picture of the deonjang soup in the menu. “You know, as long as I’ve lived here I’ve never actually tried that. I’ve heard it’s good, but I never had the courage to do it because of the smell. Is it as good as I’ve heard?”

“I don’t know how well your chef makes it, but it’s pretty good.” Ji-ae planted her elbow on the table and propped her head up in the palm of her hand. She felt, rather than heard, the gentle vibration of her phone through the table but chose to ignore it. Since Maria was here it was likely just Minnie informing her of another tag and clone attempt. “I dunno. It gives me this nostalgic feeling whenever I eat it. Makes me think of my mom.”

“Oh, did she make it a lot when you were a kid?”

“Ah, no. She died when I was young so it’s just one of those strange connections.” Ji-ae almost felt bad for the woman when she saw her face fall. She offered a small smile as a form of a comfort. “I feel like it might’ve been something she would’ve made.”

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry!” Maria’s hand went to her mouth and her eyes widened in sympathy. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to bring up any sad memories.”

“Relax, it’s okay.” Ji-ae gave a flippant wave of her hand to show that she was truly not upset. Truth be told, much like her cover identity, her mother had died before she could even talk. No matter how hard she tried, and she used to try a lot as a child, she could never conjure up memories of the woman. “Honestly, I was really, really young so there’s nothing sad to remember. It is what it is.”

“Still, I feel bad.” After a moment Maria’s eyes brightened and her smile returned. “I know. The milk tea’ll be on me today, okay? And I refuse to take no for an answer. It’s the least I can do for being an insensitive clot.”

“I said it’s okay, but if you insist…” Maria’s sudden generosity brought a surprised chuckle to Ji-ae’s lips. “Apology accepted, however unnecessary. Free tea accepted as well.”

“Great! I’ll get that out for you in a minute!” The waitress turned and got a few steps away before stopping and turning around. “I’m Maria, by the way.”

“Ji-ae.” She offered in return only to recoil when Maria zipped back to the table in excited glee. “Yes?”

“Ji-ae, do you happen to work at the soap shop across the way?” Ji-ae could only nod in response to her excited question. “Small world, but my friend Yoosung was in there yesterday to pick up a gift for his mom! He mentioned how nice and helpful you were.”

“Yoosung? The golden retriever?” The comparison drew a laugh from Maria. “Nice guy. Did his mom like the soaps?”

“Dunno. I’ll have to ask.” Maria looked as if she were about to say something else when the pocket of her apron started singing. She pulled the phone out just enough to glance at the screen before shooting Ji-ae an apologetic smile. “Right, I gotta take this. It’s my sis and she looks like she’s carrying twins so…”

“Go ahead. I’m in no rush.” To prove her point she pulled out her own phone and waved a screen full of otome games at the other woman. “I’m good here. Go take care of your sister.”

#

“Is everything okay?” Maria asked as soon as the call connected, having paused only to give the chef Ji-ae’s order before darting into the empty breakroom so she could talk to her sister without interruption. “You’re not in early labor, right? Nothing freaky happening? Sis?”

“Your connection’s spotty.” Vanderwood’s calm, dry tone pulled her right out of the anxious downward spiral. “And she’s fine.”

“Vanderwood?” When she received a quiet hum of confirmation she pulled the phone away from her ear to double check that it was indeed Morrigan’s phone she was connected to. To be fair, she was not entirely sure if Seven’s handler even had a phone of his own. She suspected he did, but had never seen the male with one. “Not that I have mind talking to you, but why are you calling? Is something going on?”

“Have you noticed anything strange in the past few days?” Straight to business, this Vanderwood was. Maria sighed and rubbed at her eye, suddenly feeling tired as she struggled to understand how Vanderwood could stand the rarely serious Seven enough to not attempt to kill him.

“Strange…” Resisting the urge to make a less than helpful comment in reply, she followed Vanderwood’s tone and legitimately focused. She did her best to move backwards through the past few days to see if there was anything, anything odd that stood out to her as odd. Nothing came up, save for the simple fact that Vanderwood was on the phone with her and that her phone connection was spotty at the moment. “My phone’s never been spotty in the breakroom before. That’s the only weird thing I can think of.”

“Gimme that.” She heard Morrigan’s voice in the background, a shuffle, and suddenly her sister’s voice was ringing in loud and clear. “Okay, sis, do me a favor? Go back to the kitchen and peek out into the dining hall, okay?”

“Alright.” There was something in her sister’s tone that made the hair at the back of her neck stand up. Anxiety slid ice fingers over her spine, but she swallowed and moved past it to make her way to the door. After a quick peek into the dining hall she let the door swing shut and hurried back into the safety of the breakroom. “Why did I just do that?”

“So, you know who was there when I dropped by, right?” Morrigan waited a second for Maria’s uncertain, but positive noise before continuing. “Are any of those customers there now?”

“No.” Maria frowned and then quickly corrected her. “Well, yes. Why?”

“Okay, so don’t freak out-”

“You think telling her not to freak out will actually stop that from happening?”

“Vanderwood, I swear to god I’ll pull the Honey Butter chips out of hiding.” There was silence for a moment, likely the stubborn pair staring each other down until one of them backed off, before Morrigan spoke again. “Everything’s under control. Know that. Vanny-boy’s already dealing with this, but someone breached the RFA app.”

“What?” And there was the dread and rising panic as her mind immediately turned to Mint Eye. The cult had been the only ones in the history of the RFA who had ever breached the app. Although what little remained of the cult was hardly a threat without Saeran or their ‘Saviour’ there might still be a few believers crazy enough to try to rebuild and reclaim what they had lost - namely Rika, Saeraon, and their wayward Angels.

She really, really, really did not want to go back.

“Mar-mar, breathe!” Morrigan’s voice wrapped around her and she sucked in a breath, counted to six, before slowly letting it out. “It’s not them. It’s not Mint Eye.”

“How are you so sure?”

“I already checked with nursey. Saeran hasn’t gone anywhere near a computer.” Maria sucked in another breath, held it for a bit, and let it out. Saeran’s nurse, and kind of girlfriend, Rani was a practical and painfully blunt woman. There was no way she would say such a thing if she did not know for a fact it was true. “According to Saeran no one else within Mint Eye is capable of getting in.”

“That and the trace doesn’t match Saeran’s.” Vanderwood’s voice interjected. “Whoever is tapping into your phone and accessing the RFA app had an entirely different school of training than Saeran.”

“Wait, is?” Maria latched onto the word. Her head slowly turned towards the break room door,half expecting someone to burst through. “As in right now?”  
“Uh, yeah. That’s why I asked if there was anyone there from last time. They tapped it then too.”

“Morri,” A thought came to mind and Maria could feel her blood turn cold. “Was there another tap? Yesterday?”

“Yoosung’s phone.” Vanderwood supplied with no preamble. “How’d you know?”

“Because she’s here.” Maria tightened her grip on her phone, feeling the inklings of fear grow hotter at the gall the woman had. Showing up at the cafe, talking as if she were friendly instead of a threat.

They had been through far too much to let someone come in, play nice, and tear that away. Morrigan acted like she was okay, but Maria knew that her sister was still haunted by what Mint Eye did to her. The agony that she could not remember but still left scars, still left impressions that left a bad taste in Maria’s mouth when she thought about it. Then there was the suffering that everyone else had gone through. Saeran’s health was still a bit on the iffy side, despite Rani’s incredible skill, and mentally he was still hurting from a lifetime of abuse that culminated in him accidentally shooting someone he admired in an attempt to kill a man he had been groomed to hate.

Every last one of them, every member of the RFA and their friends and loved ones had gone through hell and back. The fact that someone threatened that made Maria’s blood boil.

“Mar-Mar, come back to me.” Morrigan called out to her and Maria breathed in again. Held it. Let it out. “What do you know about this girl?”

“Her name is Ji-ae.” There was no hesitation in giving them everything she knew, however little it was. Like hell was she going to protect a threat to the people she loved. “She works at the soap place across from here. Her mother died when she was young, if that helps any.”

“In case she is the person behind the breech you’re to avoid her to the best of your abilities.” Vanderwood’s voice was resolute. “If you have to interact with her, then treat her as you normally would. It is in your best interest, along with the best interest of the RFA, that you do not let her suspect you know.”

“In case? In case?” How could he doubt it? “She was the only one who was there all three times! It couldn’t be anyone else!”

“It’s a remote breech. She may be an innocent that the real culprit is using as a proxy to get close enough to initiate the tap.” That was a possibility that Maria had not considered. “If that’s the case, letting on that we know about the tap could endanger her.”

“As it is, she isn’t dangerous.” How certain was Morrigan of that? She would not lie to her, so Maria accepted it as truth. As long as she kept up appearances and played nice, then everything should be fine. “Stay calm and let Vanderwood handle this.”

She had to believe that.

“Right, right. Can do the calm thing.” Another intake of air and release helped ease her nerves somewhat. “Wait, why is Vanderwood doing this? Not that I don’t appreciate your help man, but this is usually something Seven would handle.”

“That’s because of me.” Morrigan answered with a heavy sigh. “Seven was the first to notice the trace and I pushed him to hand it over to Vanderwood to handle. There’s a chance the Prime Minister’s behind this and believe me, we need to keep the twins as far away from that man as possible.”

“I’ll take your word on that.” There was something Morrigan was not telling her, but now was not the time. Her sister’s memory was filled with holes, likely because of whatever Mint Eye had done to her that turned her eyes to mint and gave her that haunted look that she thought no one saw, but Morrigan had a way of knowing things.

“Thanks.” Morrigan said before putting her hand over the phone, muffling her voice somewhat as she told Vanderwood to be careful and to not kill the girl. When she spoke again her voice was clear again. “Okay, he’s on his way there. He’ll handle this Ji-ae girl and get to the bottom of this.”

“You know what, yeah, I think he will.” There was something about knowing that Vanderwood was on his way that put Maria at ease. Maybe this was how Morrigan felt when she just knew something. Her eyes drifted towards the clock. “I gotta get back on the floor. I’ll text you if she leaves before he shows up.”


	5. Day 3, Night: Sparks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> These may not be the sparks you were looking for.

Coincidences happened. There were times when, inexplicably, the rare and unlikely circumstances happened and lined up to unfold in a particular way. Rather than feeling lucky, the coincidences that had unfolded since she began her mission left her with rising nerves. It made the baby fine hair on her arms rise and tightened in a knot in her lungs.

Ji-ae blamed the coincidence, and her resultant nerves, for the sudden bout of low-key paranoia. She could not pin the exact point in the day when she began throwing cautious glances around her, but it lingered throughout her shopping spree. It followed her as she strolled through the crowds, no matter how thick or thin they were. It was on her heel, warming her back as if eyes were upon her, as she filled out the form necessary for stores to deliver the goods she had no desire to carry around. It caught the edges of her wig as she breezed by, even though she could see no one near her.

On the off-chance her paranoia was actually her instincts, she made a point of slipping in and out of the crowds to move from store to store. She lingered, occasionally, and threw her gaze around but no face showed up more than once or twice.  
If there was anyone following her, which she doubted, then they were highly skilled in keeping themselves hidden without losing sight of her.

The sun hung low in the time by the time she managed to shake the feeling within the crowd leaving SKYY University and the shopping district. Ji-ae flowed with the river of people, slipping into the quick moving current of those who were in a rush to reach the metro, and out again into the trudging masses with bleary eyes and barely constrained yawns. It was within the final cluster of people waiting for the doors to open and whisk them away that Ji-ae slipped free of the crowd and into the darkened dead-end of a service hallway.

Freeing herself from the wig was a bit of bliss. It was no small measure of relief to take off the weight and heat of it and wrap it up carefully in her hair net along with the pins that had helped hold it into place. Kneeling down she carefully tucked the bundle into the bottom of her shopping bag. A pair of freshly purchased leggings was removed from the bag and with some hops and well-practised shimmying she pulled them up and under her skirt. The skirt fell away with a simple unzip and joined the wig in the bag. Her blouse was unbuttoned and tucked in the bag as well and she reversed her cardigan to reveal its dark inner-layer.

After running her fingers through her hair to fluff some life back into it and dabbing on some red lipstick, Ji-ae was safely tucked away and Piri was back to her old self. She silenced her phone and tucked it into her now-inner cardigan pocket. Some tools she had brought with her were transferred from her usual purse to a common, cheap one she had picked up which she threw over her shoulder.

With a swift kick she sent Ji-ae and her shopping bag further into the shadows of the dim nook and Piri was ready to return to the shopping district and complete her night’s mission - splice Minnie’s remote ports into camera feeds with a decent view of the cafe.

The first location on her mental list was the metro itself. It was easy to slip unnoticed through the crowds that frequented the station, something Piri knew all too well. If her targets travelled via metro she knew enough about hiding in public to feel confident she could spot her targets in the crowd. If they did not travel through the metro then she would be able to confidently note they preferred alternative transportation.

Either way her profile on the targets would be more complete.

With the maps speckled throughout the large station it was not hard to find the security station. Piri knelt down and busied herself with typing and retying her shoes as she eyed the lock from the corner of her eye.

It was an older model, she knew that much. The kind that relied on tumblers and keys over electricity and codes. Minnie would be no help and while Piri had her lock-pocking tools hidden away in her shoes, she doubted she had the time to get into the security office. Although the lights within the office were dimmed, there had been a half-eaten sandwich,something bought at a nearby convenience store, sitting on its brightly coloured wrapper on the desk.

There was a guard somewhere and Piri had no way of knowing when they might return.

So she took an alternative route, sliding into a service hallway nearby and following it through until she caught sight of an important looking door with several warnings to steer the public away. It was the word Maintenance that had caught her eye and caused a smile to tug at her lips. Maintenance was exactly what she needed and she quickly set to work on picking the lock.

In a previous mission Piri had to take a job as maintenance at a large business in England where she had learned, first hand, a very important lesson.  
One should never, under any circumstances, overlook maintenance staff.

As maintenance she discovered she had nearly unfettered access to everything from the lobby, to the breakroom, to the office of the bigwigs raking in the large checks, all the way to the server room securing their most precious corporate secrets. More importantly, she was invisible as maintenance. No one important spared her a second glance as she walked through their secure hallways with her toolbag thumping into her side. She also knew, from that past mission, that maintenance hallways were an infiltrator’s dream.

The metro’s maintenance hallway proved no different. Clearly labelled and well lit, it took Piri no time to navigate the narrow hall towards the mass of wires that connected to the security office. The wires were even labelled and colour coordinated which helped her find the cluster that belonged to the cameras.

Tech related work was not Piri’s favourite part of the job, though she knew it was a necessary evil. It was still a painstaking task that had her biting the inside of her cheek in frustration. She had to carefully cut through the wire’s protective coating to access the metal inside. Of course, they were live wires and if it were not for the gloves she had tucked earlier into her bag, she likely would have shocked herself as she split the wires and began to splice in the small chip that would allow Minnie access to the feed.  
It was tedious work even with wire strippers and her gloves. The wires were tiny and she bit her lip in concentration as she stripped a few further down and carefully twisted them together with the chips loose wires. One after another, she spliced the device in until she felt her phone vibrate against her signalling the connection was active. With that done she carefully wrapped the wires in electrical tape, sealing the chip within and tucking it back where she found it.

With that done Piri followed the maintenance shaft deeper until she found another exit. She slipped out into the shadows of the street and made her way towards the shopping district. There were a few shops along the way that could prove useful, but her focus was compromising the cameras closest to the cafe. She could always backtrack for the others later.

Surprisingly enough the soap shop proved difficult. Mr Park’s wires were all inside the store, the little camera out front connecting through a wire drilled through the wall. Getting inside would mean risking triggering his alarm and being caught on the camera he had inside the store leaving her little option but to drape herself over the edge of the roof and work with the little bit of wire exposed by the camera. It was an annoying job, one that left her hands shaking and her head swimming from dangling over the roof, but she managed to make the connection and wrap the wire enough so that her modification would not be visible from the street, at least.

To her relief the clothing boutique beside the cafe proved simple. The security system had a box in the back, easily accessible through a staff entrance with a simple tumble lock. The hallway was dusty, rarely used, and the box was an even dustier mess of wires. Half exposed, the other half wrapped in old electrical tape. She had to be careful not to catch her wrists on some of the old, exposed wires but it was a cakewalk to splice in her chip with everything half-exposed as it was.

Chances were good their security grid probably worked better after she had finished with it. She might have gotten a little overzealous with the electrical tape, but all the exposed wire made her intensely uncomfortable. How anyone had allowed something as vital as their security system degrade to that extent she could never understand.

Turning her sights to the cafe, she saw the challenge presented to her. Unlike Mr Park’s cameras, the cafe’s were snugly implanted in the wall without even the shortest trace of wire visible. A slow sweep of the outer part of the building gave no visible trace of security box, but the sheen of metal on the roof drew her attention.  
An antennae, which meant wires. Which meant scaling the roof on the off chance that one of the wires linked into the security system. Why the cafe of all places had to be the most difficult, she would never know. She stretched as she eyed her best climbing point, a spot in the back that had a large air conditioning unit and enough possible footholds for her to use to get to the top. She would have preferred a ladder, but there had not been any available which meant that there was likely roof access somewhere within the cafe.

The organisation had trained their agents well and had a rock climbing wall in the facilities to keep their skills up. Piri had worked with the wall, with rock, with brick buildings, and the like. She knew how to dig her toes onto the smallest footholds and to keep herself moving, using momentum to keep her nerves or the facade she was scaling from crumbling.

Once she was safely on the roof she knelt in place and slowed her breathing to calm her racing heart. Years of training could not stop the flood of adrenaline that a climb like that gave her, especially with the added knowledge of injury if she had messed up and slipped.

“Right, back on task.” Piri found her footing again and made her way to the antennae she had spotted from the ground level. True to her theory, it was linked to a box and a collection of wires that dipped into the roofing.

Given the lack of easy access to the box, it was no surprise to discover that no one had bothered to install a lock. Such trust, Piri chuckled to herself as she opened the box and set to work on shifting through the wires. This box was in the best shape of the ones she had dealt with that night. A recent install, if she was had to guess, with no sign of electrical tape. Something that upped the difficulty factor of her task.

She could not assume that no one checked the security box. In fact, it might be safe to assume that the hacker tied to her target had a hand in setting up the system or if word got out that something had happened to the system, the hacker might come to check and all her work here tonight would be for nought.

With the task at hand, Piri sat down in front of the box and began the arduous task of shifting through the wires until she found the one she needed. It was, for the most part, exposed to the outside but she traced it down and found a small section that was hidden behind others at the base of the box. A bit of a tight spot to work with, but her best bet of her alternation going unnoticed. She snipped open the rubber coating, cut back the layer, and peeled it back to expose the wires. A couple of snips exposed what she needed and she carefully twisted in the chip, waiting impatiently for the tell-tale buzz from her phone to indicate that the splice had been successful. As soon as she felt it she tucked the chip into place and pulled out a few small strips of electrical tape to seal it in and, hopefully, hide her work.

“Good as it gets…” Piri closed the box and got to her feet, stretching the tension out of her shoulders. She had a few more chips left, but had already tackled the most pertinent camera feeds. The rest were just icing on the cake of a job well done.

She was halfway back to the edge she had initially climbed over when a sound slowed her pace. The night was quiet, save for the ambient sounds of air conditioning units, crickets, and the distant white noise of cars zipping down streets. Nothing out of place, yet she was certain she had heard something. A crunch, far too close for comfort. Like someone else was on the roof with her, cautiously attempting to avoid notice.

It was the only warning she had before the buzz of electricity lit up the space to her left and she threw herself away from it to avoid getting shocked. Refusing to stay in one place, Piri threw her weight, flipping back onto her feet to face her attacker.

“That’s no way to greet a lady.” She slid her feet a bit further part to give her better balance on the gravel covered roof and moved her hands, unsure if she would need to be on the offencive or defencive just yet.

The figure was tall, taller than she was, and had the broad shoulders and narrow waist of a fit man. His hair, pulled back to away from eyes nearly black beneath the light of the moon, was a brown. Slacks, jacket, purple undershirt, and loose jacket with cheetah print, paired with belts strapped around his waist and thigh told her plenty. Then again, his near silent approach and the steady blue light of the taser in his hand was a rather negotiable warning as well.

This man was an agent and, quite possibly, an enemy.

“What is the quickest way to see the ravens?” When was the last time she had to use the code phrase? She had been with her mentor when she had to use it last after the pair had stumbled into another agent’s investigation. Yet instead of the release of tension and the smile that came with the answering reply, this man’s eyes narrowed.

“Not an ally then. That’s a shame.” He underlined the fact with a fist thrown at her face which she narrowly dodged. He was quick, she noted, and gave little hints to what his next movements would be. She would have to be careful. He was no spring chicken.

Nor was he much of a talker. He came at her gain, testing her reflexes and forcing her to dance away from the crackling taser. She ducked punches, weaved away from the device, and could not find a moment to catch her breath. He was fast and he was relentless, edging her closer to the edge of the roof.

Piri was hyperaware of her increasing proximity to the edge. The roof was expanding behind him and narrowing behind her. He was pressing his advantage and she was rapidly losing space to dodge him in. She needed to swing the flow of the fight in her favour, win back some territory or the only options left for her was taking a fall off the roof or taking far too many watts to the throat.

There was a chance she could catch the edge of the roof, but he could easily capture her or shove her off. The fall would not kill her, but there was no way she could fall without injuring herself. It would be difficult to get away, especially injured, if he chose to follow her down.

Taking a taser to the throat seemed like the better of the two options, though not by much. She had no way of knowing how high he had the device set for and if he was aiming to kill or disable her. Her chances of survival or evading capture was just as slim with the taser and, well, she really did not want a burn from that nasty looking device.

“So what’s your deal?” She suddenly asked as she feinted left only to dive under his arm. She planted her foot in the gravel and pushed, throwing herself to the right. Still too close to the edge for her comfort but it gave her a little more wiggle room to maneuver in.

“I could ask you the same.” Oh, what a nice voice - one devoid of any sympathy and filled with irritation but nice nonetheless. He deflected her question and turned quickly to block the fist she threw at him, the taser in his hand buzzing far too close to her face for comfort.

“Nothing’s the deal with me.” Piri snapped her arm up to push the taser away and caught his other fist when it came flying for her stomach. “I was just having a nice, leisurely walk when you came after me babe.”

“Sure you were.” The brunette’s legs flashed out and she was forced to release him and flip backwards to narrowly avoid the strike. He pressed his advantage on her lack of balance and the skies stretched above her as pain bloomed in her spine. He dropped down above her, partially pinning her down and lowered the taser to her neck. Close enough that she could feel the heat of the electricity in an unspoken threat. “What’s your mission?”

“Classified.” This was not good. Piri swallowed, her eyes moving from his face to the hand that held the taser and back. He was quick, close to her own speed, but he had strength in his favour along with his weapon. “Listen, walk away now and we’ll forget all about this. This isn’t worth starting war with the organisation for.”

“The organisation.” His handsome face remained impassive. The same mildly inconvenienced mask he has worn the entire time still intact. “Eodum.”

“Not an enemy you want to make.” Yet he did not seem to care, which did not bode well for her. The words were a mistake, she saw that immediately as the golden brown of his eyes turned cold enough to cut. Eodum was an organisation he clearly had no qualms about making an enemy out of.  
The organisation had its fair share of enemies and Piri knew that, but very few would dare to get involved in a war against them. The threat of one was usually enough to get any enemy to hesitate, especially since the last war between Eodum and an enemy agence had lasted a decade and cost hundreds of lives on either side. They had a ruthless reputation, considered to be some of the best of the best, but the man on top of her could not care less. He looked like he would happily take her out and every damn agent from Eodum.

“I’ve heard all about your people.” The taser touched her skin and her vision flashed white. It might have been only a second but when her vision cleared she thought she could still feel the sizzle of electricity through her veins and her muscles twitched against her wishes. “Again, what’s your mission. Tell me everything now and I’ll make your death quick, child murderer.”

“W-what?” Piri blamed the stutter on the electricity and squeezed her eyes shut in hopes she could just will the charge to dissipate. When she opened her eyes again he was still staring down at her with frigid hatred. It took a few long heartbeats until his words sunk in. “We’re not child murderers!”

“Who’s your client?” She shook her head, a subtle no to avoid the taser. Even if she knew, she could not tell him. “What’s your mission?”

“None.” Piri regained control enough to lurge forward, taking the zap to the throat but toppling the male who had not expected her to be able to move so soon. Thighs locked around her hips, she leaned forward to pin his arms to his chest, the taser still bright between them. This close to hm she could feel the angry huff of his breath once the shock had faded enough to restore feeling. “As in none of your fucking business!”

“My offer still stands.” The smile that spread over his lips was slow and set her on fire. How dare he smile like that as if he were not the pone pinned down, as if there was something he knew that she did not. “I’ll either kill you nice and slow, taking my sweet time to make you feel every bit of it, or you could tell me everything and I’ll make it quick. Your call.”

“Oooh, what a terribly difficult decision.” Piri’s eyes snapped down to the taser and back again as she tried to channel the volcano within her. Where did his confidence come from? There was very little he could do from his position, even with the taser still in his hands. Yet the mirthful tilt of his lips remained to unsettle her. To buy heself some more time and hoping to unsettle him further, she batted her eyelashes at him and adopted a flirtatious tone. “You make a little death so oh so tempting.”

Piri saw the moment her innuendo sunk in. His eyes widened, just a fraction, and his breath caught as colour bloomed in his face. Pressing her advantage, she shifted against him and pushed the arm with the taser away. With her chest flesh against his and her grip firmly locked on the wrist holding the taser, she could feel the rise and fall of his chest as he let out a shuddered breath.

“Why don’t we take our time?” She offered her own temptation to him as she lowered her head just enough so that her lips brushed against the line of his jaw. “Live a little…”

“Not even in your dreams.” With a grow and sudden show of strength she went tumbling off of him. She tucked into a roll, knowing she would be feeling it in the morning, and let the momentum put more distance between them.

“Aww, what a shame.” A twist of her lips later had her feet under her again and the sight of the fury on the tall male’s face had her heart in her throat. Yet when she rose to her feet it was her smile that had him hesitating. Well, maybe not the smile. Maybe it was the taser she lifted and triggered to crackling blue glory. “It’s gonna be such a waste to leave a mark on such a handsome face, but you’ve given me no choice, have you babe?”

The advantage was hers. He may have the strength, but she had the speed and the weapon. Her body ached from the tumbles she had already taken and her muscles still twitched, but despite that she was having fun. Adrenaline flowed through her veins and she went on the attack, pressing him back and trying to break through his defense to make contact.

It only took a moment. A second where his foot slipped on the travel and hers did not. A chance for her to sweep his leg out from under him and jam the taser into the exposed flesh of his neck. She held it there for a second and then another before pulling back. When he did not stir, save for the involuntary twitches from the electric charge, she finally breathed a sigh of relief.

“Thanks for the dance, babe.” She gave his cheek a gentle pat, half checking to see if he was faking and half to assure herself that he was out cold. When he did not stir she felt for his pulse and was actually relieved to find the rapid, but fairly steady beat. “For real, I can’t remember the last time I had so much fun.”

Piri switched off the taser and tucked it into the pocket of her cardigan, the adrenaline that had been fuelling her for so long suddenly starting to taper off and leave her exhausted. There was no way she could deal with the rest of the wire splicing she had planned to do. That and a glance towards the skyline made it clear that she did not have time to finish the job. The fight had taken longer than she had thought and the horizon was beginning to lighten. Dawn was approaching and soon the early employees would be on the way to open up shops.

Luckily for him and unlucky for her, she did not have the time to stick around and finish him off. Not that she honestly wanted to. The job had been far too easy for her tastes and he put up a good fight. That and despite his threats, the taser either did not have the capabilities to kill or he kept it set low enough to take her down without killing her. It was only fair she return the favour. On a whim she decided to spare him, but not without leaving some sort of reminder. She planted a kiss on his cheek, lingering just a moment before sitting up and admiring her the red print of her kiss.

He would come after her again, she was certain of that, and she would be ready for him.

“Until next time, babe!” She gave the unconscious male a salute before dusting herself off and leaving the way she originally came. It was about time she returned to her apartment, check on the fruits of her hard work, and type of a report to send into her client.


End file.
